When Worlds Collide
by katbybee
Summary: Mike Stoker has a VERY interesting day at work...! No way to describe...Just read it, Under General, 'cause they don't have a Genre called Weird...LOL! Please R/R! Don't own, no cash, just having a blast in the sandbox...
1. Will the Real Mike Stoker

Plain and simple, Mike Stoker loved his job. Hell, where else but LA could a guy pick up _two_ paychecks for doing what he loved to do best in the world? He was fairly well-paid as the Engineer for Station 69 out of Topanga Canyon. He also had a Screen Actor's Guild Card, from some minor movie work he had done a while back, so he had been cast in a TV series as—an Engineer for a fire station…at a real station in Carson, re-christened "Station 51" for the series called "Emergency!" This meant he drove the engine to all the location shots and leant his real life experience to the reality of the series. He also picked up a _third_ paycheck for acting as the technical advisor on the show whenever they needed it. After just a couple of seasons, the series was a big hit. Yep, the extra money was definitely excellent…and life was good.

The hardest part for the actors always came at the end of the day, when the "continuity" folks had to take photos of every last person and prop in sight. Everyone would have to freeze into position, and wait until continuity cleared them to leave to go have their costumes and make-up removed.

Of course, all bets were off if his "69's" pager toned him out. It was understood he worked on the set around his work shifts, but there were times when he would be called out in a major emergency situation, just like all his brother firefighters. He chuckled remembering a few times he had shown up at the Topanga Station with makeup still on his face. At least he was able to wear his own uniform on the show. That did save him some time. He only had to remember to change out his helmet.

Of course, the fact that "Engine 51" actually _was_ HIS baby, Engine 69, the few times he had been toned out, the filming schedule for the "engine crew" had been shot all to hell! They had to bring a "stand-in" for her and had to use just still shots of the engine, or resort to stock shots. Unfortunately, this tended to happen mostly in the fall, during brushfire season. He could be sent anywhere in the country if the need arose. And it had happened. He had helped fight wildfires in various states, and some of them had been long and bitter fights. In fact, the recent 1970 California wildfires were fresh on his mind. Much of Southern California had burned during that horrific fall, and many lives, homes, structures, and vast acreage had been lost.* Even though that was before the pilot was filmed, there were plenty of stock footage taken by various film and news outlets during those fires, and Stoker was sure some of it would end up on the show, if it hadn't already.

Deliberately turning his mind from that dark place, Mike idly thought over the many times the production crew had forgotten to change over the decals on the engine that first season. They only changed out the numbers that would show in a particular shot, placing a magnetic "51" over whichever "69" would be showing. And of course, he drove his baby, "Big Red," home to the barn twenty miles away in Topanga Canyon at the end of each shoot. Many times he would park her, only to discover his fellow station mates laughing heartily as the big engine pulled up wearing two different number designations. There were a few times he suspected The Phantom might have been inspiring a certain actor friend of his!

He had remembered to bring a clean uniform with him in addition to the one he wore, and his extra set of turnouts were already in Big Red, so he was good to go. Whenever he drove Big Red, he was officially on duty, even if he wasn't responding to a call. No one would ever see a firefighter driving a rig in civvies…not even in his sleep!

All these thoughts ran through Mike's mind as he made his way to the Universal lot in Big Red, and headed for another day of filming. He was due to head for another shift at 69's tomorrow, so he sincerely hoped today would go smoothly with no surprises. Silly of him, really…

After he had parked Big Red on the Universal backlot, on the marks required by the director, he climbed out, and stood back to watch the filming. He would not be needed for a while, so he used the time, as was his habit, to check all the equipment on Big Red, and then watch the action on the set.

He watched as the other actors got set up for the exterior scene they were currently filming. He much preferred filming on location and doing backlot exteriors. It had taken a while for him to get used to the interior filming process. Sometimes there would be as many as three cameras filming at the same time, and a lot of people on the set, watching every move. And, of course, the dreaded continuity process. He sincerely hoped, someday, some genius came up with a way around that mess!

Mike turned back to finalize prepping Big Red for filming. This meant grabbing a polishing cloth and giving her another once-over. He really was as obsessive about fingerprints on his baby as his 51's counterpart. Therefore, when the heavy overhead camera somehow came loose from its housing, Mike never saw it coming. One moment, he heard several voices shouted "Mike, look out!" He felt a heavy weight hit his back and shoulders. Someone shouted something about getting the camera off him, and then the world went black.

When he finally opened his eyes, Mike was flat on his back, blinking in confusion as several of the actors were surrounding him He was laying next to Big Red. He had the mother of all headaches, and his back and shoulders were sore from the camera hit. "Roy" was taking his vitals, as if this were a scene from the show! "Johnny" was pushing him back gently as he tried to sit up. "Now, Mike, just lay back. You took a pretty hard hit there."

He looked at "Johnny" balefully. "No kidding!" He growled, " _You_ try getting knocked around by one o' those overhead cameras. Suckers are heavy!"

Now it was Johnny, Roy and Cap's turns to look baffled. Slowly, Cap looked at his concerned paramedics. He would take the lead on this one. He knelt down next to his injured engineer and best friend.

"Mike, how ya doin' pal?"

"'m fine." Mike arm now covered his face to cut the sun's glare and ease the headache. Hank Stanley could tell just by the tone of his voice that his friend was so far from fine, it wasn't even funny.

Hank tried again. "Mike, do you remember how this happened?"

"Pretty much. I was working on Big Red, and an overhead camera decided to use me for target practice."

Hank was completely mystified as to what an overhead camera was, but decided it must have something to do with the concussion Roy and John said Mike was suffering.

"Well, hate to tell you pal, but you're only partly right. Not sure where the camera thing came from, but it was a big-ass tree limb that hit you in the back. Winds whipped up all off a sudden, and broke the damned thing right off and blew it right into you. Damndest thing I ever saw."

At these words, Mike sat up, jerking away from "Johnny." His eyes grew as large as saucers as panic welled up inside him; and he realized four things: a) the actor playing "Cap" would NEVER talk like that on camera since b) the censors would never let him get away with it; c) they were parked on a suburban street nowhere near the Universal lot, and d) there was not a camera, mic, or crewmember to be seen, anywhere! _Oh, Crap!_ Mike's hazel eyes rolled back, and he faded into blessed oblivion…

TBC

A/Ns: Mike Stoker is a retired LACoFD Captain, who at the time of the show was stationed with Station 69 in Topanga Canyon, as its Engineer. Many of his duties on the show, and his backstory are fact; but of necessity I have taken some creative license.

*It is probable he was involved in some capacity in the devastating fires of 1970, in which thousands of Southern Californians lost their homes, myself and my family included. I will be forever indebted to Mike Stoker and all first responders, to whom I owe my very existence. My humblest thanks.


	2. From the Frying Pan

_Chapter Two—From the Frying Pan_

Mike came to in the back of the ambulance, staring straight up at Johnny. The _real_ Johnny Gage, he now realized. "Ahhhhh, great," he groused. "I just got dropped off in the damned Twilight Zone!"

Johnny looked at him strangely for a moment; then decided to let it go, as he checked his BP. He smiled, as it was coming down a bit.

"Welcome back, man. You had us worried for a while there."

"You think you're worried?!" The normally calm engineer was beginning to panic.

"Mike, calm down! What's wrong?"

Suddenly, Mike realized panicking wasn't going to help, and neither was telling anybody else the truth—at least—not yet. He was about to find out how good an actor he really was…

He sighed, and closed his eyes. "Nothin' Gage, just hurts, I guess." _Which really wasn't a lie, either._

51

He had managed to handle everything at the hospital pretty well. After all, he knew who they were supposed to be. It just seemed so weird that there were no cameras or crew running around. He still didn't know if he was just unconscious or dreaming or what, but he hoped he would come out of it soon, because he had a shift out at 69's in the morning, and he couldn't miss it.

He was checked out and released, as he was sure he would be. He knew the blow to his back wasn't that severe. The blow, however, to his psyche, was an entirely different matter. What if he was stuck here permanently? And for that matter, where was here? As far as he knew, he was in a world that didn't even exist, except on paper—in some scriptwriter's mind…

The implications of this struck him like a ton of bricks. Until he found a way home, who controlled his destiny? Who was he really? And where did he go from here? Another thought struck him as well. Outside of the station, he, Mike Stoker, the actor, didn't belong here. He had no real life here. And what if he or, actually, the _other_ Stoker—the _character_ , was stuck in HIS life—oooh, boy…what would Angie think…would he even know about her? How could he? He was just a TV character, and nobody outside of a couple of his own closest friends even knew they were dating yet…

He rode back to 51's in the squad in silence. He had no idea what to say to the two paramedics. He also realized that it wasn't a problem, because they really didn't expect him to talk much. The character he portrayed was much the same as he actually was in reality. Very quiet. Good. That would work well for him while he tried to figure a way out of this mess. But how could he figure a way out if he couldn't figure out how he got here in the first place?

He decided to just play it cool and go…be Stoker. He grabbed a polishing cloth and polish and headed out to Big Red. He felt oddly comforted as he began his familiar routine. At least Red was the one real thing in his life right now. He reached down and pushed against the large "51" emblazoned on her side door. It was not magnetic. Not 69 in costume. It was the real thing. Okaaaay…so maybe not the real thing? So now what did that mean for him? He had no more time for thinking about it as the klaxons sounded, and his instincts kicked in. He was behind the wheel, and they were on their way to his first "real" call being the engineer for 51's. And though it felt surreal to him, his shift-mates had no clue, as he was the same efficient, experienced professional they had always known.

After the call, a house fire, which was quickly contained, the men returned to the station. There were no injuries, so the squad returned with them. Cap handed out their paychecks, and a new thought occurred to Mike as he studied the amount. His income was now cut back by about half! No consultant or actual engineer's pay for him! He was being paid only for being an engineer at Station 51. On the bright side, at least he had learned his home address, and at least both he and his counterpart were bachelors. Except for Angie, of course… This could really get ugly!

He finally gave up worrying and just decided to roll with whatever happened. There really wasn't much else he could do. He laughed quietly when he thought about this happening to some of the other cast members, who were vastly different than the characters they portrayed. They would never have been able to pull off the deception he had…not even for a moment.

Providing he wasn't caught in some sort of temporary time warp or something, he would get off shift at seven in the morning. Maybe things would change by the time he headed for home. And maybe they would have a quiet night tonight…

51

At least he was used to sleeping in a dorm with other firefighters. It just seemed strange to be sleeping in Station 51 with these particular guys. Normally, they filmed all the "sleep" shot in one batch and spread them throughout the week's filming. Same went for the various exterior and interior scenes. The guys out at 69 sometimes razzed him about his not watching the show. He just told them he already knew how everything was going to turn out, so what was the point? The truth was that seeing himself on television or more rarely, in magazines, embarrassed the hell out of him. The money was nice, but he didn't like the notoriety one little bit. He didn't mind doing the safety posters, talks, and commercials for the Fire Department Publicity Department; that was important and part of his job.* He just hated all the other crap that came with being recognizable. His mind shied away from the word "famous," even though that's what he was.

Mike sighed as he turned over in his bunk. He knew he needed to get some sleep, but in his confusion, he also knew it just wasn't going to happen. He slipped out from between the sheets and headed into the kitchen. He figured he might as well make some coffee. It was going to be a long night. He was startled by the sight of tousled black hair bent over crossed arms at the kitchen table. Mike touched the junior paramedic's shoulder gently.

"Gage, you okay?"

"Hmmm?" Sleepy brown eyes blinked slowly, then snapped alert. "Oh, ummm. Hi, Mike." Johnny stretched his sore muscles. "Yeah, I'm fine. Jus' couldn't sleep is all."

"You looked like you were doing pretty good when I walked in." Mike half-smiled.

"Yeah, well, that was the first time all night. Don't know why. Something just doesn't feel right."

Mike stiffened slightly, unnoticed by the other man. "What do you mean?"

Johnny shrugged. "I dunno. Ever since this morning, I've been feeling weird. Like something's out of place; but I can't figure it out. Anyway, I couldn't sleep, so I came in to make some coffee, but I guess I never made it that far, which is really strange, because I was really restless in the dorm; then really tired when I sat down. Now that you're here, I feel all keyed up again." He ran his hand through his hair, and plopped down on the sofa, dislodging a disgruntled Henry, who begrudgingly moved to the other end.

Gage's words had begun to worry Mike, who had been brewing a pot of coffee as the younger man had talked, and now handed the paramedic a cup. He took his own cup and sat down at the table and contemplated what Johnny's revelations might mean to his situation. He wondered if he should say anything to his friend, or if it would just make everything worse. Could Johnny somehow be mixed up in all this? Or could he just be sensing some sort of weird vibes somehow? Either way, Mike knew if things didn't change drastically soon, he was going to have to find some help. The two men drank their coffee in companionable silence, now that Gage had seemed to have gotten his worries off his chest. But Mike knew his worries were just beginning.

~TBC~

A/N: *Mike Stoker, as part of his position as an Engineer with LACoFD did make appearances for their Publicity Department in various Safety Campaigns. Any information which I have imparted about Mr. Stoker has been from research available on public internet sites and I have at no time invaded his privacy. "Angie" is an O/C character.


	3. Into the Fire

If Mike was hoping everything would be back to normal with the morning change of shift, his hopes were dashed with the arrival of the B-Shift. All his shift-mates were talking over how they were going to spend this next day off. Mike realized he had not a clue what he was going to do. He was happy he had been paid, but until he got back to "his" apartment, he was not sure just what shape he was actually in financially or any other way. Also…he was really tired, because he hadn't slept much.

Johnny was still acting oddly around him, and that really did bother him. He couldn't account for the reason, but it seemed at first as if the paramedic was the only one who felt there was something different about him. He hadn't said anything more about it, just thrown him some strange looks from time to time.

However, the other interesting thing was that even though Henry was pretty much "Chet's" baby, (which made sense, because he actually belonged to the actor playing "Chet," *) Henry, who usually had limited use for Mike, was now practically fawning all over Mike! Unfortunately, this also meant that, not only had Henry slobbered over his one remaining clean work shirt, but Chet was also now shooting Mike the occasional stink-eye. So, did that mean that the real Chet was feeling the actor's possessiveness of Henry? If Chet was even real and not just the figment of some scriptwriter's imagination?

It was all getting to be way too much for Mike. All he wanted to do was wake up in his own bed, in his own condo. He wanted to head out for work today at 69's like he always did. But somehow, that just didn't seem like it was in the cards. And if Gage shot him one more look…They finished up in the locker room and everyone scattered.

One thing Mike was grateful for was that the Los Angeles he was stuck in was laid out identically to the way he was used to seeing it. He had no trouble finding streets and landmarks. It took him only a couple of wrong turns in order to find his apartment complex. He pulled into his space, and headed to his apartment, which was located on the ground floor in the back corner of the complex. As he walked through the landscaping, he took a look around. About the best he could say for the place was that it was in decent repair and that the neighborhood seemed to be reasonably safe. It was quite a comedown from his upscale condo complex. _Ah, well,_ he thought to himself _, hopefully this is all just very temporary!_

The hardest part of being home was realizing he was actually all alone in this strange place. He had no idea what the neighbors were like, if he even knew any of them, and of course, he missed his girlfriend. They had not been dating for very long, which meant they were still getting to know each other. And what he knew, he liked. A lot.

He decided to explore his apartment, to see if the other Mike actually had a life. Somehow, it wasn't that much of a shock to discover that the apartment was fairly barren and plain. After all, the character was never shown at his apartment…so, what did that mean?

He checked the fridge, and found there was at least some food, and a six-pack of beer. Mike set about making himself a sandwich and popped a beer. It was strange, because there was no mail sitting around…nothing personal about the apartment at all. It looked sort of like…a set. There were some books on the shelves, and a television. Although there were a few paintings on the walls, they looked as if a set designer had placed them there. They were not his taste at all, and he had a feeling they would not be his counterpart's choice, either.

There were clothes in his closet, ones that were basically his taste. He took a shower, and then tried to decide if it was worth the risk to turn on the t.v. After all, what would watching the news in a television world be like? What if he discovered that the outside world and the events he remembered as being true were not the same in this world? He sank into the recliner and thought about that.

Of course, they couldn't be the same. He was not living in the same world as before. There was no Johnny or Roy or Cap or Chet…not in the real world. Marco…he mused over him for a while. Marco used his real name as his character name, but that is where the similarities ended. The real Marco was completely different from his character…and unlike Mike, was strictly an actor, and not a firefighter. He knew fans frequently got confused over that.

So, again, what did it all mean? So far, it looked as if his most "real" existence was at Station 51 itself. It was almost as if anyplace the character was not shown on the show was only so much window dressing…he could function, but it felt off. Of course, this whole experience was so off, there wasn't even a scale for it.

He perused the record collection next to the stereo. Most of them were just bland standards…not his taste at all. He missed his Eagles albums. Finally deciding the whole thing was just too weird to contemplate any more, Mike headed out to pick up some groceries.

After he got back, he decided to put on a ball game. That seemed fairly safe, and he soon found himself drifting off, relaxing completely in his chair. It was late when he awoke. The television station had gone off the air for the night, and all he saw as he turned off the set was static.

He was still tired, so he made his way into the bedroom and got ready for bed. He was not a pajama kind of guy, so he simply stripped to his boxers and t-shirt and climbed between the sheets. He had no clue what things would be like when he woke up the next morning, so he simply decided to let it go for now. His mother had always told him that the only way through a lake of trouble was to swim it. Otherwise, you sink, which did no good at all. So, he would swim.

~TBC~

*This is a total plot device. I do not know who owned "Henry." Please remember, FFN rules state authors are not allowed to mention actual actors' names in our stories, so I am having to work around that rule.


End file.
